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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The TIV, short for Tornado Intercept Vehicle, will be at the Cosmosphere on Monday, April 11 from 10-7. The TIV is featured on the Discovery Channel show, “Storm Chasers,” and in “Tornado Alley,” now playing in the Cosmosphere’s Carey IMAX Dome Theatre.

“Tornado Alley” includes footage of the TIV inside a tornado. Driver Marcus Gutierrez and Meteorologist Brandon Ivey, both of whom are featured in the show and the movie, will be at the Cosmosphere on April 11. Their appearance is free to the public. Movie tickets are $8 for adults and $7 for children.

The TIV will be at the Cosmosphere all day. The TIV weighs 14,000 lbs and is 106 inches wide, 26 feet long, and 8 ft high without its mast.

A lucky Facebook Fan will win a ride in the TIV through the Cosmosphere’s Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/kscosmosphere. People can also sign up in the lobby of the Cosmosphere.

Gutierrez served as U.S. Navy corpsman and is now a first-class medic trained in trauma, pediatric cardiothoracic surgery and orthopedics. He has provided emergency support for the TIV team, and is the official driver. Hopefully his medical skills will not be needed for the TIV team in the future.

Ivey has been interested in severe weather since age 16, after the April 26, 1991 tornado outbreak in Kansas and Oklahoma. He became heavily involved in the documentation of weather events about ten years later, after much research about storms. He earned his Broadcast Meteorology Certification in 2006 and a year later received a degree in Geosciences through Mississippi State University.

Smith is one of the world's leading experts in the application of weather science. Meteorologist, entrepreneur, and inventor, he created WeatherData Services, Inc., has been credited with saving countless lives and more than $100 million for his clients and the general public. Prior to founding WeatherData, Smith was a television meteorologist in St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Wichita. He is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist and a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. His first book is, “Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather.”

Friday, March 25, 2011

Coffee at the Cosmo on Thursday, April 21, is entitled, “First in Space: Yuri Gagarin and 50 Years of Spaceflight.” It is at 9 a.m. at the Cosmosphere and is free and open to the public.

Russians were first into space on April 12, 1961, when Gagarin’s Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of Earth. As the first human in space, Gagarin became an international celebrity.

However, that was to be his only spaceflight. Seven years later, while on a routine training flight, he died in a crash. His body was cremated and the ashes buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square.

The Kansas Cosmosphere has the largest collection of Russian space artifacts outside of Moscow, including a flown Vostok. Gagarin’s flight spurred Kennedy’s famous speech a few weeks later when he declared the US would put a man on the moon, and return him safely, before the end of the decade.

Coffee at the Cosmo is an ongoing series of free presentations at the Cosmosphere. It’s the third Thursday of every month at 9 a.m. and is always free. Enjoy coffee and pastries, meet new friends, and learn something new.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Cosmsophere is offering a new camp this year that’s open to adults, as well as those who have completed earlier levels of camps. “Space 501” is slated for June 26-July 2, and will tour multiple space facilities in California.

Space 501 will take you on an unforgettable journey to see the cutting edge of space exploration technology for the future while you soak up the history of what has come before. You’ll travel to California and tour Space X, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Edwards Air Force Base, Dryden Spaceflight Center, Columbia Memorial Space Center and the aircraft carrier USS Midway.

Special accommodations are being made for our group at various places, including a behind-the-scenes tour at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Interplanetary Engineers at Dryden will take time for some special activities with our group, and at Columbia we’ll lunch with some retired engineers who helped create technology we still marvel at today. Be where the future is being created.

The tour was designed to give you a taste of the history of the space program, the technology putting us into orbit today, and the possibilities for tomorrow.

Cost of this once-in-a-lifetime trip is only $1950 per person, based on double occupancy. That price includes your travel and food.

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Tornado Intercept Vehicle, affectionately known to fans of the Discovery Channel show “Storm Chasers” as the TIV, will be at the Cosmosphere on Monday, April 11. A lucky Facebook Fan will win a ride in the TIV through the Cosmosphere’s Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/kscosmosphere, or scan the code below. You can also sign up in the lobby of the Cosmosphere.

The Cosmosphere is now showing the movie, “Tornado Alley,” which includes footage of the TIV inside a tornado. Driver Marcus Gutierrez and Meteorologist Brandon Ivey, both of whom are featured in the show and the movie, will be at the Cosmosphere on April 11 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Their appearance is free to the public. Movie tickets are $8 for adults and $7 for children.

Gutierrez served as U.S. Navy corpsman and is now a first-class medic trained in trauma, pediatric cardiothoracic surgery and orthopedics. He has provided emergency support for the TIV team, and is the official driver. Hopefully his medical skills will not be needed for the TIV team in the future.

Ivey has been interested in severe weather since age 16, after the April 26, 1991 tornado outbreak in Kansas and Oklahoma. He became heavily involved in the documentation of weather events about ten years later, after much research about storms. He earned his Broadcast Meteorology Certification in 2006 and a year later received a degree in Geosciences through Mississippi State University.

Come and see the TIV and meet Marcus and Brandon on April 11 at the Cosmosphere. Make plans to see “Tornado Alley” while you’re here.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Congrats to our email newsletter trivia winner this time - Janina Albertin of Haysville - who was so fast with the answer I had barely glanced away from the computer screen from sending the email.

The question was:The movie, "Tornado Alley," includes star Sean Casey and other storm chasers. Some of the chasers are scientists gathering comprehensive data on the formation of a tornado. What is the name given to this team of researchers?

Answer: Vortex 2

Tornado Alley opens at the Cosmosphere on Friday, March 18. Don't miss it!

Friday, March 11, 2011

When visiting the Cosmosphere during tournament week, March 15-19, look for docents in the Hall of Space Museum with buttons declaring, “Ask me.” They are specially trained to answer questions about the exhibits in those areas, and help visitors make the most of their time in the museum.

The Space Race was a complex set of circumstances involving science, technology, engineering and politics, so it’s unreasonable to expect a visitor to grasp it in just a quick visit to the museum. The docents will help steer people toward areas of particular interest or explain things that might be unclear.

This is an added, free, service with your paid admission. Docents will be available in the Hall of Space from 10-12:30 and 1:30 to 4 p.m. each day from March 15-19.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Vanished, a first-of-its-kind, online interactive science mystery event created by MIT and The Smithsonian Institution, will include the Cosmosphere.

From April 4-May 31, 2011, players ages 11-14 will collaborate with Smithsonian scientists, MIT students, and fellow players nationwide to unravel an interactive mystery story. Through games, puzzles, real scientific thinking, and visits to local museums - including the Cosmosphere - they must uncover the truth before time runs out.

If you have, know, or work with children ages 11-14, we hope you'll encourage them to sign up for this exciting event at vanished.mit.edu.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Tickets are now on sale for the opening of the movie, “Tornado Alley,” at the Cosmosphere Carey Imax Dome Theatre on March 18.

It’s a heart-pounding science adventure with Storm Chasers star Sean Casey and the researchers of VORTEX 2 who are making an effort to understand the origins and evolution of tornadoes.

With a 70mm camera, a fleet of customized vehicles designed to withstand gale force winds, torrential rains and unrelenting hail, and an arsenal of the most advanced weather measurement instruments ever created, the stars of Tornado Alley take audiences on a thrilling quest to experience a tornado’s destructive power at point blank range. Adrenaline meets science in nature’s most dramatic phenomena.

Traversing the severe weather capital of the world, “Tornado Alley” documents two unprecedented missions seeking to encounter the birth of a tornado. Filmmaker Sean Casey’s personal quest to capture the birth of a tornado with a 70mm camera takes viewers on a breathtaking journey into the heart of the storm.

A team of equally driven scientists, the VORTEX2 researchers, experience the relentless strength of nature’s elemental forces as they literally surround tornadoes and the supercell storms that form them, gathering the most comprehensive severe weather data ever collected. This science adventure reveals the beauty and the power of some of our planet’s most extreme—and least understood—weather phenomena.

Beginning on March 18, in addition to “Tornado Alley,” the Cosmosphere will be showing “Hubble.”

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

"To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA" is a temporary exhibit at the Cosmosphere about Snoopy’s 40 year plus involvement with the space program. It is from the Charles M Schulz Museum and Research Center and examines the history of Apollo 10 and the Peanuts characters’ role in that flight. It is at the Cosmosphere until May 1.

In 1968 NASA approached Schulz about using Snoopy to encourage safety. Schulz agreed, but stipulated that he would draw Snoopy when he was used. Snoopy proved to be a big success with astronauts and employees. He is even the subject of the Silver Snoopy pin, a highly coveted pin flown on each mission and awarded by astronauts themselves.

In May of 1969 the flight of Apollo 10 was the “dress rehearsal” for the lunar landing that would occur just a few weeks later when man would walk on the moon for the first time. The Apollo 10 crew nicknamed their command and lunar modules Charlie Brown and Snoopy respectively. Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan piloted “Snoopy” within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface as they scouted the landing area for Apollo 11 while John Young orbited the moon in the command module, “Charlie Brown.”

Snoopy was even the first beagle on the moon, beating the Americans and the Russians. See that famous strip, look at Snoopy as Astronaut toys from the first one to the present day, see a Silver Snoopy Pin, and enjoy the amazing history of NASA's most famous beagle astronaut.

"To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA" is included in the price of your ticket to the Hall of Space museum.

Alan Glines, one of NASA’s original “Men of Mission Control,” will speak at the Cosmosphere on March 26. He will speak at 10 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. He will sign his book, “A Kansan Conquers the Cosmos,” after each session. The book will be available for purchase in the Cosmosphere gift shop. The presentations are free to the public.

Glines worked at NASA for 13 years, beginning with the Gemini program in 1966 when America was in the space race with the Soviet Union. He also worked on Apollo missions at the height of the manned space program. Glines continued at NASA with the Skylab program before joining private industry in California, and eventually moving to Europe where he worked at the European Space Agency.

Glines book, “A Kansan Conquers the Cosmos,” offers a first-person glimpse into the aerospace industry. It covers his days as a science fiction-obsessed youth who ran a theatre at Kansas University as if it were mission control, to his time at NASA mission control, and beyond.

Over four decades, he acquired an extraordinarily rich tapestry of experience in the aerospace worlds of development and operations, and command and control, exploring no fewer than seven geographical and intellectual career paths.

Glines received his bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Kansas University and a master of science in systems management from University of Southern California. His story is a detailed and unique look at the aerospace industry and continues to inspire people today.